Trying to Sell a 3/3 Loft Two Years Later in The Sexton: 360 W. Illinois in River North
This 3-bedroom loft in The Sexton at 360 W. Illinois in River North came on the market in May 2011.
It last sold in the middle of the recession in August of 2009 for $725,000 which was the same price as the prior 2004 sales price.
The listing doesn’t indicate it had any updates (neither kitchen nor baths) since the last sale.
It is now listed for $225,000 more than the 2009 price at $950,000.
The loft is one of the bigger units in the building.
It has exposed brick and high timber ceilings with two outdoor spaces, including a 54 foot long deck.
All 3 bedrooms have windows and there is also a separate family room.
The kitchen has cherry cabinets, granite counter tops and stainless steel appliances.
The loft has central air, washer/dryer in the unit and comes with 1 car parking (with a second available for $35,000 more.)
Will this unit command a premium to the 2009 price?
Jennifer Ames at Coldwell Banker has the listing. See the pictures here.
You can also check out the Youtube video of the 2009 listing here if you want to compare.
Unit #601: 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, 2500 square feet
- Sold in December 1999 for $536,000
- Sold in October 2004 for $725,000
- Sold in August 2009 for $725,000
- Originally listed in May 2011 for $950,000
- Currently still listed for $950,000
- 1 car parking included plus second available for $35,000
- Assessments of $1097 a month (includes doorman)
- Taxes of $12,236
- Central Air
- Washer/Dryer in the unit
- Bedroom #1: 19×18
- Bedroom #2: 13×13
- Bedroom #3: 10×15
- Family room: 16×13
Nice unit. Also, I didn’t know this building was called the Sexton.
As for the price? There’s only one word for it: ballsy. Two recessionary years + zero work = 225k profit. Meet the new math, same as the old math..
I really can’t see this place going for more than the upper 500s. What is very eye-opening and important to realize is that hindsight is 20/20: even if we were in the midst of a recession in 2009 (when the unit was last sale) most people didn’t grasp the full extent of it until 2010 or 2011 (ie it takes a while to sink in). MOST IMPORTANTLY, we will be saying the same thing about being at the bottom right now (ie – in 2015 we will be saying, wow, we could have bought unit x at price y) – again, it is all psychology – if you follow the masses you are always going to be a little behind the curve – ALWAYS. Right now we are at the bottom – you guys are not going to realize it until 2012 or 2013 when, everyone else will realize it and start buying again (translation – higher prices).
It really isn’t that hard to figure this stuff out.
“Will this unit command a premium to the 2009 price?”
Seriously doubt it. I get the feeling that this unit will be on the market for a long, long time.
“Right now we are at the bottom – you guys are not going to realize it until 2012 or 2013 when, everyone else will realize it and start buying again (translation – higher prices). ”
You’ve already been wrong before. Your track record here isn’t so good.
A “showshopper” this is not.
More like a “keep shopping after the showing.”
mark the calendar 1yr forward, when Sabrina will just have to change the two to a three.
Someone should write this guy up a 930 offer just to fk with ’em.
Good luck trying to get a buyer who can borrow that asking price, because the 3 bed that’s currently under contract was listed at $799 and doesn’t need a bathroom updating.
ze: “Someone should write this guy up a 930 offer just to fk with ‘em”
….uhhh, and I’M the mean one? Again, a bunch of hypocrites on this site – just pointing it out….
What real estate agent would want to take sellers this delusional?
Executed Recorded Case No. Amount
09/16/2009 09/24/2009 MORTGAGE $417,000.00
Executed Recorded Case No. Amount
09/16/2009 09/24/2009 MORTGAGE $100,000.00
“Right now we are at the bottom – you guys are not going to realize it until 2012 or 2013”
I agree that we may be getting close to a bottom between now and in the next 6-18 months, but that only does you any good if you actually buy at a “bottom” price. Way too much stuff has a totally unrealistic asking price, and the property in this post is a great example.
nwzimmer, I agree – buyers should be careful. However, at the same time, there are some pretty good deals out there (unfortunately, the really great deals get snatched up by investor sharks).
“again, it is all psychology – if you follow the masses you are always going to be a little behind the curve – ALWAYS.”
Isn’t that math?
“MOST IMPORTANTLY, we will be saying the same thing about being at the bottom right now (ie – in 2015 we will be saying, wow, we could have bought unit x at price y) – again, it is all psychology – if you follow the masses you are always going to be a little behind the curve – ALWAYS.”
Disagree. We are on the cusp of the 4th year of d-spiral. They have tried bank bailouts, stimulus spending, new home buying subsidies and unfettered money printing to no avail. Obama will break out more plays from Fuhrer Roosevelt’s failed playbook. The quantity of money that flowed into housing from the late ’90’s to 2006-ish was unbelievable. Just as stocks generally revert to the mean P/E ratios, housing reverts to some sort of mean price to income ratio or price to rental ratio. Toss in the massive unfunded retirement liabilities and demographic headwinds with the boomers heading south and Chicago area housing is still not a great place to park one’s money as an investment. If there is any appreciation between now and 2015, it will at best just track inflation, to the extent there is any.
Nice unit, but I would not pay the seller over $200,000 more than the 2009 price no matter how much I loved this unit. It’s not that special. I wouldn’t even want to look at this unit when the seller is so greedy.
“Fuhrer Roosevelt’s”
And done. Godwin’s law kicks in.
Seriously, some of you hard core conservatives have some wacky views of history. FDR is the fucking enemy, man. He’s, like, Hitler x 10.
Wow. This place is terribly, horribly overpriced. The finishes are terrible. For nearly a million dollars I would want decent appliances and frameless shower doors. If an asking price could offend me, this would be it. It looks like a 500 to 550k place.
“FDR is the fucking enemy, man. He’s, like, Hitler x 10.”
Get it straight–FDR is merely Khrushchev to Woodrow’s fatal combo of Lenin, Stalin AND Trotsky. Obama is the nazi.
you know guys this could be a “make me move” listing…
nice place but I like the southern facing duplex #609 in this building MUCH better for a little less
The only upgrade I can see when comparing the prior listing to the current one is a new refrigerator.
Hey give em credit they did get rid of all that snow in the youtube video. That is worth something…..
What possible reason does a realtor accept this listing. Unless we are missing something really significant that increased the value of this property then they are not going to sell at anything close to this asking price.
I think that on occasion sales people get confused and think that any customer (aka RE listing) is a good customer. That is not the case! While it is hard for us to turn down business we know that some customers take a larger percentage of time or resources than they are worth. This will prove to be the case here. It is the black hole of wasted time!
pretty sure Jennifer Ames wouldn’t just take “any” listing, but who knows, maybe times are so slow
The space is great for this location. The loft has good light too. Many lofts are dark and have just one giant window at the end of the living room. The downsides are that finishes are dated, the layout is odd (lots of lost space in the triangle corners of the bedrooms), its on two levels (not attractive to young families) and the views will soon be blocked. The lot in front of the buildng that is current EBC parking got zoning approval to build a high rise. This will block the views for most of the building. Now, there are only a handful of lofts with views….sad really. A few in the west loop, 900 North Kingsbury, and one in the South loop.
“pretty sure Jennifer Ames wouldn’t just take “any” listing, but who knows, maybe times are so slow”
Judging on her featured listings times are indeed slow. She has listings from $300K to over $3Million and also is representing a rental at $3K per month. That is pretty clear take anything that comes along strategy aka “If I’m busy then things will happen” philosophy.
Just to be clear I understand that sometimes you have no choice aka friend, relative, or an unrealistic seller that you are representing who is also using you to PURCHASE a new place. If these sellers are actually purchasing and moving on up then they are a golden ticket as that will bring in income and eventually force them to set a realistic price on the sale of this unit.
In the meantime she just needs to make sure not to kill too much time on showings.
” The lot in front of the buildng that is current EBC parking got zoning approval to build a high rise. ”
yeah but that can take literally decades for anything to come of it, how do you find out that information of a specific lot?
I had to look up “Goodwin’s Law,” but it’s definitely true. When morons like anon(tfo) have nothing to contribute, they resort to calling people Nazis. Yeah, FDR was a terrible president. FDR, Abe Lincoln and George Washington were all horrible. We need to get us some more George Bush. Now that guy got stuff done. God help us.
In other news, Clio can be an annoying poster, but I agree with him that right now is the bottom of the market. Confidence will stabilize over the next two years, and then home prices will start to go up again. The hardest thing about investing is buying when everyone else is panicked and selling. For equities, that time was in 2008 when Lehman filed for bankruptcy (and guys like Warren Bufett made huge investments in the stock market http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/17/opinion/17buffett.html). For housing, that time is now.
From wikipedia: Godwin’s law (also known as Godwin’s Rule of Nazi Analogies or Godwin’s Law of Nazi Analogies)[1][2] is a humorous observation made by Mike Godwin in 1990[2] that has become an Internet adage. It states: “As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1 (100%).”[3][2] In other words, Godwin put forth the hyperbolic observation that, given enough time, in any online discussion—regardless of topic or scope—someone inevitably criticizes some point made in the discussion by comparing it to beliefs held by Hitler and the Nazis.
“When morons like anon(tfo) have nothing to contribute, they resort to calling people Nazis.”
You being sarcastic, too?
funny how your obvious sarcasm gets misinterpreted more than most. wonder why that is. esp in the brain of a long time listener.
“funny how your obvious sarcasm gets misinterpreted more than most. wonder why that is. esp in the brain of a long time listener.”
Perhaps LTL-FTC is blissfully unaware of the Beckian hatred for Woodrow Wilson. Extract that knowledge, and that comment sure makes less sense.
I scavenged the BLS unemployment report today and found this interesting
Actual unemployment rates from august ’11
Total, 16 years and over = 9.1 %
Adult men (20 years and over) = 8.9%
Adult women (20 years and over) = 8.0%
Teenagers (16 to 19 years) = 25.4% (yikes!)
Total, 25 years and over = 7.8%
Less than a high school diploma = 14.3%
High school graduates, no college = 9.6%
Some college or associate degree = 8.2%
Bachelor’s degree and higher = 4.3%
people over 65 (men and women) = is 6.1%
What demographic would you think would be buying green zone or any city properties?
I’m not saying a bottom is in, but things are slowly looking up from the bowels of hell we’ve been through the last 2 years
Also saw this little tidbit which I also found interesting its the ‘first trust fact of the day’ not bullish, but looking better since banks appear more willing to let short sales actually go through.
“Short sales represented 12% of home sales in the U.S. in Q2’11, up from 10% in Q1’11, according to RealtyTrac. Short sales peaked at 16% in early 2009. California’s rate (25%) was over twice the national rate. The sales in Q2 took an average of 245 days to close. The homes sold at a 21% discount, on average, to non-foreclosure homes.”
Sonies – how do you find out about a specific lot?
I recall reading something about it recently in the press. I don’t think this article was it, but the link below discusses the proposed build.
http://www.chicagorealestatedaily.com/article/20080430/CRED03/200029222/apartment-investor-in-deal-to-buy-w-loop-condo-site
I bet the US would’ve gotten involved in WW2 a lot earlier if Hitler tried to kill six million dogs.
Bob:
You should work on your history. Most of the Holocaust occurred *after* the US entered the War.
“The hardest thing about investing is buying when everyone else is panicked and selling.”
What’s there to say about identifying sellers that obviously don’t exist while not identifying sarcasm that obviously does?
I don’t think we’ve hit bottom in the real estate market or in our economy. I’m not hearing a lot of stories about companies expanding or giving people raises. I see the government spending money it doesn’t have and I really think it’s going to catch up to us.
I’m still glad that I own, but I’m not planning to move anytime soon.
We are near bottom, but markets always overshoot on the downside. That being said current prices are back to fair prices so I wouldn’t worry about having to pay up 10% appreciation. We are not going into a bubble. Look at tech stocks after they corrected they pretty much did nothing for the next 10 years. You can wait for a hard bottom to occur then maybe we see a small pop back to fair value and then you will see price appreciation in line with inflation, not the 10% above inflation rate you saw in 00’s.
Decent sized unit with a ’54 ft deck. I’d put value in this place in the 600’s.
“We are near bottom, but markets always overshoot on the downside.”
I agree, also I’ve seen lots of movement of condo’s in Andersonville recently. I know of one block that 2 months ago had 6 units on the market, today all have sold or are under contract.
This part of River North, just east of the river, is one of my favorite areas. The houses on Huron and Superior are amazing and tipping a few at the Green Door is a good time.
That said, I’m thinking he’s charging extra for the view which shows the pool of the East Bank Club. Throw in some binoculars and it’s milf watching time.
Seems like barely a half step above builder quality.
Then again, seller’s got balls. Give ’em hell.